'The Walking Dead' ratings stay strong despite the Oscars

If you're like me, you weren't one of the 40.4 million viewers who tuned into the Academy Awards on Sunday night. Not only was I not terribly invested in any of the nominees, but I had another television viewing scheduled for that night: The Walking Dead. AMC's zombie horror drama was, unlike the awards, the unpredictable choice, and the episode ("I Ain't a Judas") turned out to be one of the best of the season. But did anyone tune in to see it, or was everyone watching Argo take home the big prize?

As it turns out, The Walking Dead held steady in the ratings on Sunday night. Despite the strong performance for the Oscars (its best in eight years), The Walking Dead managed to hold an audience of 11.01 million viewers. That's still a little less than the 12.26 million that tuned in for the midseason premiere on February 10, but it's about steady with last week's episode, which garnered 11.05 million viewers. It actually was up one tenth of a point in the ever-important 18-49 demographic (making it the highest rated scripted series in that demographic for the week).

It looks like there's no stopping the ratings juggernaut that is The Walking Dead. Unfortunately, that also means that there's no stopping the completely useless follow-up talk show Talking Dead, which garnered 3.5 million viewers, grabbing the number two slot for the night in the 18-49 demographic. Looks like we're not getting rid of that annoying show, but at least we've gotten rid of most of those jarring ads that rip away the tension from commercial-break cliffhangers. Like the survivors of the zombie apocalypse, it looks like we have to take our victories where we can.

The Walking Dead will air its next episode, "Clear," on March 3 at 9/8c on AMC.